Edmund S. Muskie - Farewell to a Tailor's Son 2

With Jane the morning after winning his first election as Maine's governor. AP Photo.

Hunting for pheasant in Maine (far right,top). Anonymous Photo.

At the White House (right) with Senator Margaret Chase Smith and President Kennedy in 1963. Anonymous Photo.

Muskie and Carter, 1980

At the White House with President Carter (above), after being sworn in as Secretary of State in 1981. Anonymous Photo.

In Chicago with Hubert Humphrey (right) after winning the Democratic nomination for vice president in 1968.
Anonymous Photo.

FTER EVERYONE settled down, a hush fell, and the Portland Brass Quintet started up. Hunting in Maine

Muskie strode down the aisle with his customary stooped grace, dressed in an academic gown over a khaki suit and a crimson Bates tie, and undoubtedly a Hathaway shirt -- the only kind he wore while the company was based in Maine. He looked like a cross between Abraham Lincoln and a moose. Twenty-five years ago, when his campaign for the White House fell apart in New Hampshire -- blame William Loeb, blame the voters, it's all in the past -- political cartoonists were crushed. They'd lost the perfect subject.

Muskie, Senator Smith, and President Kennedy

Today, Muskie walked beside someone who did make it -- Jimmy Carter, who flashed his own caricaturist's-field-day grin. Everyone stood. The gym rocked with hand-reddening applause -- it made the flowers on stage tremble. Muskie stopped once to embrace an old Bates friend. He nodded toward the Faceless Bastards.

Carter received an honorary degree, then spoke warmly of his personal and working relationship with Muskie, who served as his Secretary of State for a bit more than eight months. The Mainer was a favorite of his mother, Miss Lillian, he said. "Except for a few overtly Republican types," Carter added, "I think all here would agree Ed Muskie should have been president of the United States!" Fat applause.

Humphrey and Muskie, 1968

Then it was Muskie's turn. He thanked Carter for braving the hurricane to come to Maine. He reminisced about his boyhood in the old mill town of Rumford, son of Stephen Marciszewski, the tailor. It was a hard life. The family bathed once a week in a tin tub full of water heated on the stove. Recalling his arrival at Bates, he said, "The Oxford Hills had seemed so far from Lewiston."

Continue to Part 3

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